A year ago this time, Dak Prescott was expected to simply be competing for a roster spot. Most thought he would be QB3, others hoped he could overtake current backup Kellen Moore for the QB2 role.
Neither happened.
Instead, Dak Prescott became the starting quarterback, the Offensive Rookie of the Year, and the projected franchise quarterback of America’s Team.
The previous franchise quarterback, Tony Romo, has moved into retirement, now broadcasting NFL games for CBS. With Romo out of the locker room altogether, it is now on the young Prescott to take over the locker room in a full leadership role.
Sure, there are other veterans like Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, and Tyron Smith still around, all of which are leaders. But we know how this works. The fans, the media, and to a certain degree the football team all look to the starting quarterback for direction and leadership, no matter how strong the rest of the locker room is.
Now, the entirety of this role falls the Dak Prescott’s shoulders. And it appears he is ready for it.
Prescott told The Dallas Morning News that being in his first offseason as the full-time starter, he now “gets it,” and admits that it’s time for his voice to be heard within the locker room. Veteran tight end Jason Witten echoed those sentiments stating that Prescott has “earned that” right to leadership.
Even though he started all 16 regular season, and the only playoff game for the Cowboys in 2016, the shadow of Tony Romo loomed large all year. While the presence of Romo may have added extra pressure for Prescott, knowing that with any mistake there would be a faction of fans calling for a switch, Dak remained calm and excelled week after week.
Certainly, after such a fantastic rookie season in which Prescott overtook the starting role from a franchise legend, Prescott has shown he is more than ready to take over. Now, we must wait until year two begins on the field, to see just how well Dak has transitioned into this full-time role.
Spoiler alert: he’s going to be just fine.
Dak was nothing but amazing especially considering he was a rookie. You also have to give the coaching staff a lot of credit as they got him ready to make the right decisions, week after week. Most think Dak will get better after getting the experience in his rookie year. This may not be true or a sophomore slump may set in. This is because of a more difficult schedule, defenses will adjust to his strengths and weaknesses, S Linehan may put more on his plate, he may feel greater pressure in his second year as he did so well last year and everyone expects him to get better and the offensive line may not be able to do what they did last year in terms of pass protection and run blocking. Some of Dak’s success was not necessarily because of Dak but because the offensive line was so good and the running game so solid and the defense played steady and good. In fact I believe K Moore would have done something similar to Dak if he had not got hurt. He would not have looked quite as good as Dak but would have won a lot of games. He has similar skills to Dak in terms of pocket passing; accuracy, poise, not making mistakes, etc.
The Cowboys back to the future, has begun. Deja Vue, the glory days of the 70’s and 90’s.